In the manufacture of integrated circuits from semiconductor wafers and substrates, wafer polishing is a common technique utilized to remove material and/or achieve planarity. Such polishing can be conducted by purely chemical, purely mechanical or chemical-mechanical polishing means (CMP). With CMP, polishing and removal occurs by a combination of both chemical and mechanical polishing action. CMP utilizes a combination of solid abrasives and chemicals to achieve the combination polishing action. One type of chemical-mechanical polishing utilizes a slurry comprising very hard, solid abrasive particles suspended in a chemical solution. The slurry is interposed between a pad and a wafer, with both typically being caused to rotate, and material removed from the wafer by both chemical and mechanical action. Another form of CMP provides abrasive material embedded within the surface of the polishing pad, and is commonly referred to as fixed abrasive CMP.
Unfortunately, conventional CMP slurries designed for non-fixed abrasive CMP create problems a and do not always work satisfactorily in fixed abrasive CMP processes. This has been discovered to be particularly true in the CMP of layers where tungsten is present at greater than or equal to fifty atomic percent. Tungsten finds existing use as a contact/plugging material in fabrication of DRAM and other circuitry. While CMP of tungsten has been reported using non-fixed abrasive pads and slurries, existing materials have proven less than satisfactory when using fixed abrasive pads. Accordingly, needs remain for improved chemical-mechanical processes using fixed abrasive pads and in the development of polishing solutions therefor.